Rest Again

Personal Matters

Restless sleep, pastors’ meetings in disorder, Indigenous Christian leadership burning with anger, young people in addiction; surrounded by such things I sensed clearly: God is restless and that he is missing the enjoyment of his rest. “The fruit of unacknowledged glory is wrath; in man and in God.” Indigenous Australians are angry because whites fail to recognise the glorious wisdom God gave them to inhabit the land; underneath every addiction is resentment at not being understood as a person in the image and glory of God; pastors are frustrated for they are not walking in the resurrection glory of the Father (Rom 6:4). Our wrath is plainly destructive (James 1:20), but God’s wrath is just because we have refused to recognise his great glory since our Fall in Eden (Rom 3:23). The Lord has been wrestling with humanity ever since and a wrestling God is a restless God. He cries from heaven, ““Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? ² All these things my hand has made…But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”” (Isa 66:1-2). The Lord is longing to rest amongst us.

Promised Rest

God chose Israel to bring her into rich fellowship with his original Sabbath rest (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 20:8-11). In the wilderness however the people quickly chose the false glory of the Golden Calf over the glory of the Lord (Ps 106:19-20). A visitation of wrath naturally followed, but the intercession of Moses drew out a wonderful promise; ““My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”” (Ex 32; 33:14). As a fruit of such joyous rest God revealed his glory to Moses and placed it over the tabernacle by day and night (Ex 34:5-9; 40:34-38). Soon however rebellion broke out once more, followed inevitably by the Lord’s restless wrath; “the angel of his presence saved them….¹⁰ Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”(Isa 63:9-10). The divine edict speaks for itself; “Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”” (Ps 95:11). Little changed with the gift of the Promised Land.

Seeking God’s pleasure David testified, ““I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord”” (1 Sam 13:14; 1 Chron 28:2). As a restless “man of war” David was disqualified from such a task; it must be completed by “a man of rest”, Solomon (1 Chron 22:9; 28:3). When the ark came to its rest inside Solomon’s temple the glory of the filled the whole house, God at rest is a God without wrath who always will manifest his glory (1 Ki 8:11 cf. Isa 27:4). Soon however Solomon turned to idols and the wrath of God blazed against his people; with repeated rebellions the glory of the Lord departed never again to return to a temple made with hands (Ezek 11:23). Only in Jesus can the Father find final rest.

Jesus the Final Man of Rest

The heavenly declaration, ““You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”” and the Spirit “remaining” on Jesus reveal that God’s joyful rest has found a home in man at last (Luke 3:22; John 1:14b, 33). Christ boldly promises; ““come to me… and I will give you rest”” (Matt 11:28-30). All is well between Father and Son but Jesus came to take away our restlessness. Christ’s own soul experiences anguished unrest as he faces the cross for he knows that only through bearing the restless wrath of God against our sin can he bring stillness to his Father’s heart (John 12:27-32). Only through his anguished obedience in Gethsemane and the experience of forsakenness on the cross is the Son formed as the one “humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” in whom God can dwell in perfect rest (Isa 66:1-2; Mark 14:34-36; Heb 5:7-9). In acknowledging God’s just wrath on our sin Jesus gives God the glory he always deserved; in him our Mediator wrath is taken away and deity and humanity are in perfect rest. (Rom 3:25; 1 Tim 2:5). Ascended into heaven Christ indwells the rest and joy the Father planned for us from before the foundation of the world (Gen 2:1-3; Heb 1:3; 4:14; 12:2). He lives in the fullness of the glory of God (John 17:1-5).

The Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit is the fruit of the rest that Jesus enjoys at the wrathless Father’s right hand in heaven; “exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you now see and hear.” (Acts 2:33). The revival many are seeking needs to be seen as the fruit of the Father’s rested pleasure as he indwells his children. This will require from us difficult repentance; “Repent therefore and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:20; Heb 4:10).

Church City

The busy drivenness of the Church testifies against us that we have not yet repented of self-effort (Matt 3:8). Our Father indeed seeks works, but their goodness is in Christ freed from the restlessness that wrath brings (Eph 1:4; 2:20). To enter God’s rest we must recognise the indiscriminate glory of grace freely distributed across the Body of Christ. We must see that only credentialed Baptists teaching theology to Baptists, the absence of Indigenous pastors leading “white churches”, our difficulties in allowing Catholic evangelists to minister across the Body, the competitive nature of the pastorate and the slowness to identify the gifts of young people are all violations of the Spirit’s witness to the rested glory of the finished work of God in Christ. To expect revival whilst such matters are not addressed is plain foolish. God cannot manifest his glory in (biblical) revival until he can dwell in a Church at rest. Some crave miracles, others money, many are ministry hungry, but who amongst us longs that the Lord might be enjoying a state of rest in our city! The Spirit is longing to build a tent/tabernacle/canopy of rested-glory over Perth (Isa 4:5-6; 54:2-3).

Conclusion

“The fruit of unacknowledged glory is wrath; in man and in God.” This is a simple fact, but unlike us the Lord takes “no pleasure” in wrath, for him anger is a pain (Isa 63:9; Ezek 33:11). The glory of Jesus is to take judgement away and seat us with him in the joyful rest of our Father and then to cheerfully give us his Spirit as a fruit of this rest (Eph 1:3; Heb 12:1-2).

Praying a few days ago I sensed a clear call to work with the Lord in his Church to build for him a place of rest in our city. This will mean a major reordering of my own restless life. How about you? Can you hear the Spirit speaking to you about his earnest longing to bring all of creation into the divine rest – beginning with your own life (Rom 8:18-27)! Together may we do whatever we are told to see Jesus come into his joyful-rest amongst us; for from such rest glory will be revealed and what we mortals term “revival” shall be cheerfully given.